Vol. 81/No. 6 February 13, 2017
25, 50, and 75 Years Ago
February 14, 1992
Two Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies have been fired for killing a mentally disturbed man. They had pumped eight bullets into his back, including several as he lay face down on the ground.Earlier, a grand jury refused to indict the two deputies and the deputies involved in three other killings. The four victims — two Blacks and two Latinos — were all killed during one month last summer.
The killer of Keith Hamilton had responded to a call from his mother for assistance in calming him down after he failed to take necessary medication.
Hamilton was felled by a stun gun and then executed. Neighbors who witnessed the killing flatly contradicted the cops’ claim that Hamilton had threatened them with a knife.
Except for the firing of the deputies who killed Hamilton, no penalties have been imposed in these cases.
February 13, 1967
MINNEAPOLIS — In the middle of a major strike at Honeywell Inc., young militants of Teamsters Local 1145 demanded the resignation of three top union officials and the 50-man negotiating committee of the local. Honeywell Inc. has 18 plants and offices in the Minneapolis area. This demand is the latest in a series of union revolts by members of Local 1145, the largest union local in the Twin Cities area.The revolt started with the unanimous recommendation by the union negotiating committee of the contract proposal Jan. 27 by Honeywell. Every day since then there have been stormy meetings of union men and women opposing the proposed contract.
The contract’s length of three years was a major objection. As Larry Watson, a Honeywell instrument laboratory worker said, “Without a cost-of-living increase clause, no contract is good beyond a year.”
February 14, 1942
FLINT, Mich. — An enthusiastic audience of automobile workers meeting in the regional headquarters of the CIO last night heard a speech on “The Meaning of the Minneapolis Convictions” by V.R. Dunne, leader of Local 544-CIO of Minneapolis and one of those convicted for violation of the Smith “Gag” Act in the Minneapolis labor trial last December.Dunne gave a short history of the union struggle for decent conditions in Minneapolis and for union democracy within Tobin’s Teamsters International. He sketched the events which led up to the disaffiliation of Local 544 from the AFL and its affiliation with the CIO, and the resultant prosecution of Local 544 and Socialist Workers Party leaders.
Dunne showed that these convictions both violate the democratic rights of the labor movement and endanger the civil liberties of the American people.